Chapter 684: Illusioned Hefter
Northern steadied his breath as a new panel flew out before his face.
[Item]
Name: [Illusioned Hefter]
Type: [Weapon]
Grade: [Legendary]
Order: [III]
Description: [Certain illusions that the Hefter was unable to create exist in this steel. It could
create a world of stars today, and create a dimension of destruction tomorrow.]
Northern's eyes slowly widened as he read through the lines of runes. His lips curled afterward.
'No less expected from defeating a Belial.'
The grade and effectiveness of many items received depended on the rank and danger level of the monster defeated.
Scholars dedicated to studying Rift science had proposed that the intensity of the battle, the origin of the monster, and the will of the monster also played significant roles in determining what grade and order of items drifters received.
Northern had just randomly heard about that while growing up, so he didn't know enough to consider the notion thoroughly.
But this sword and what it took to defeat the Hefter, especially after its senses had been hijacked by the Dungeon Warden, was backbreaking.
So, seeing this sword like this... he didn't consider it so much of a wasted effort.
He shifted his eyes away from the panel and traced them down to the sleek sword in his hands.
The sword had no hand guard; its silver hilt was engraved with what looked like a wavy dragon, then wrapped by white linen that extended downward.
The blade had neat and flawless surface, as if water had been forged into steel of silent destruction.
Even in the darkness of the cave, Northern could clearly see the reflection of his radiant blue eyes, recognizing once again how resplendent they were.
The blade felt light in his hands, almost weightless. He swung it sideways. A faint screech tinged at the tip of his ear as the blade parted through the wind.
A satisfactory grin climbed his face, his eyes brimming.
'It's good.'
He needed a sword. Stainless was a good sword, no doubt, but he did not feel entirely comfortable using an Odachi. He had even proposed it to Bairan before; the sword king had vehemently refused to let Dark Mortal go, saying...
"There's just something about that sword that sits well with me..."
'He should have seen the sword that slayed him.'
Soul Taker was his favorite; the sword was a weapon that would forever be etched in the pages of his heart.
While he felt pained about it being broken thanks to some damned Kirithon that just wouldn't die, he also acknowledged that the likes of Revant and Bairan are his void subordinates today thanks to its gruesome death.
'...how strong must Soul Taker's wielder have been to be able to kill these people.'
...Or perhaps wielders, Northern wondered.
He sighed and went on to inspect the next part of the sword. The interesting part.
Order Ability: [Illusion Sword], [Blink], [Whispers of Regret]
Illusion Sword: [This ability can be consciously activated. When used, the blade of the sword becomes invisible to the naked eye and can cast illusions of blades upon its target]
Blink: [You can blink out barrage, creating a better chance at counter attack]
Whispers of Regret: [With every missed swing is a faint whisper. This whisper can become so strong it can cause you to lose your senses and go berserk]
Northern contorted his face in irritation when he saw the last runes of description.
'Now, that is one uncomfortable ability there...'
He glanced at it with disgust once more before dismissing the panel.
Now that the strange anomaly had been dealt with, all he had to do was continue exploring the dungeon.
His plan was to go as deep as he could, see what he could discover about the dungeon, and leave the rest to his clones and Void summons.
That meant that during the duration they would be exploring the dungeon, Northern would be left with no subordinates at his disposal.
But he did not care about it. After all, there was a cause for him doing all of this.
One last thing was there that he hoped would happen and at the same time not happen.
He advanced down the cavern tunnel that was now looking like the disheveled bowels of a macabre. Broken stones and cracks marked the dark scenery, a morbid testimony that a terrifying fight had occurred here.
After a couple of minutes of walking, Northern finally reached out of the cave into a wide area, like the one he had seen before.
Except this one's atmosphere was not charged with crippled time and faint waves of
lightning.
However, Northern felt a pressure drop on him the moment he stepped into the open space. A very powerful gaze suddenly settled on him.
Immediately, Chaos Eyes flared open, his polycoria pupils diligently searching in every direction.
They finally merged back together, a faint yet tumultuously dangerous light glowing in his
eyes.
He opened his hand, the sleek sword manifesting into his hands. He clenched his fist around it even tighter, feeling the almost weightless weight.
Using Grengar and Stainless had forced him to adapt to heavy weapons and caused him to almost forget how light a sword could be-which was his preference.
Northern, in his few weeks of intense training, had learned to put tremendous emphasis on his speed. It was the one thing that he could do as easily as blinking his eyes.
Of course, the ability to peer into people's souls and discover their emotions had been a vital effect of his body absorbing [Eyes of Intent].
And now [Windstride] was also taking effect, significantly making his legs as light as feathers. What was more terrifying, however, was that there was not yet a limit to how fast his body
could run.
He was not yet running at the speed of light, but Northern could feel such a level of speed
coming closer.
On the bad end of such a great phenomenon was the fact that his stamina could be depleted completely with just a simple run, should he get that fast.
A light sword was bound to ease the future endeavors of weaving an indestructible and vicious combat style.
Northern fixed his glowing azure eyes toward the closed wall. The wide area was like an open semi-circle; the open part fell to a slope that led one deeper into the dungeon.
There were strange blue glowing grass-like plants that were faintly illuminated. Thanks to that and the small wisps of light that flowed, the wide area was not as dark as the tunnel, but was also not as bright as the first wide area Northern had encountered.
Not that he cared about any of that now.
Northern's eyes were not fixed on the open area; instead, they were glued to a wall. Slowly, they narrowed to slits, their light tense and dangerous. Then he moved.
As expected, his use of ferocious speed in the illusion of the Hefter had caused him to grow
ferociously.
His speed was almost imperceptible. With a single movement, his entire body blurred, vanishing completely before any eyes could follow. A terrifying clash resounded in the cavern.
Stones exploded outward with a cloud of dust. A millisecond seemed to slowly pass by, then a figure flew through the air, crashing into the upper wall on the other side before falling to his knees like an undefeatable king.
The cloud of dust that was created upon impact slowly dissipated, revealing black hair with bluish roots and tips.
Ferocious eyes dangerously glinting in the darkness, a thin blade that looked almost like a sheet of metal flattened to the width of a paper hummed with a soft white radiance in his
hands.
Northern slowly rose to his feet. His eyes still locked on whatever it was he had collided with behind that wall.
Just as he straightened completely, another figure, much larger, blurred out of the wind of dust, blurring through the air and landing all in the seamless flow of barely one second. The creature stood on four limbs, but its forelimbs seemed much larger and taller than the hind-in fact, they carried its entire massive body.
It was much larger than the Demonic Bone Jaws that Northern had faced before.
It was almost ten feet tall, easily towering over him with a pressing aura.
Northern, though, had a devilish grin on his face.
'How disgustingly amazing. Rughsbourgh really worked his butt off to fill his damn dungeon
with ruthlessly strong monsters.'
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[A/N]
Thank you very much for always reading and supporting my book, despite how unbearing I
can be.
As you all might have noticed, updates these days have been only one per day, but I shall make
up for that by uploading three chapters every day from the 2nd of January, 2025, to fill in for
those other chapters.
Busy is an understatement of how busy I have been this season; I hope I don't have to be admitted to the hospital later.
Anyway, thanks guys for the support. I need it even more next year. Merry Christmas and
Happy New Year.